Massage therapy is practiced by professionals and used by non-professionals in their homes in an effort to alleviate muscular discomfort and stress and to promote relaxation. As the number of people suffering from stress and recreational injuries increases so, too, does the demand for treatment of those afflictions and the use of relaxation techniques.
Massage techniques, as well as other types of body treatment techniques, are generally performed while a subject is lying prone on an elevated table or support. Tables conventionally used for professional treatment are heavy and well-braced and are not portable in any meaningful sense. Portable, folding treatment tables have been developed and numerous designs are in use. They are advantageous for many purposes because they can be collapsed and transported to various locations where they may be reassembled to provide a stable support structure, and they require less storage space. One of the disadvantages of folding treatment tables is that they are generally not as structurally stable as conventionally constructed tables. Nonetheless, the availability of collapsible, folding massage tables has allowed massage and other body treatment professionals to provide services at different locations, such as in clinics, medical and residential care facilities, in the workplace, and in homes. This has significantly improved access to massage treatment modalities.
For in-home and residential facility body treatment work, it would be convenient to use a bed as a treatment support surface for treating a subject while in the prone position. When the subject lies face down, exposing the shoulders and back for treatment, however, the subject's face contacts the bed, which is uncomfortable, impedes breathing, and produces misalignments of the neck and spine. Rotating the subject's head and resting the side of the subject's head on the bed surface is generally uncomfortable for a subject, particularly for extended periods of treatment time. U.S. Pat. No. 6,148,460 describes a massage and therapeutic bed extension device providing an extension for a bed that supports a subject's head more comfortably and maintains alignment of the spine and neck.
Sitting massage support structures have also been developed. Some are adjustable and have active massage elements and are intended to be occupied by a subject in a conventional seated position. Seated massage support structures having supports for a subject to lean into and a headrest to support a subject's head, thereby exposing the back and shoulders for treatment, are also available. Some of these have adjustable features, allowing a therapist to modify the structure to accommodate subjects of different sizes.
Many portable massage support structures are suitable for use by treatment professionals, but they are not well-suited to casual, in-home use as a consequence of their expense and bulk. The present invention is therefore directed to a body treatment support structure that is conveniently stored and transported, and that may be assembled in a variety of configurations to provide treatment of subjects in both prone and sitting positions.